Imagine a construction team made up of qualified individuals. The engineer, architect, quantity surveyor, foreman, plumber, electrician, bricklayer etc. etc. are building something. They’re building something because they’re unsure of what they’re building. Together, they’re laying the foundations, arranging bricks on each other – held together by cement, doing the wiring. But what exactly they aim to achieve and how long it takes them, they cannot answer. While they have the components of the system [to erect a building], there is still a chaotic feel about the job.

In OSH, it is no different. You can have a team of highly qualified and experienced OSH practitioners in the various fields. But unless there is planning and implementation, they would not produce a desired nor consistent outcome. Wouldn’t this defeat the purpose?

Initial Review – Scouting a Goal

The planning and implementation process begins with an initial review. Through this review, the OSH personnel can gather the necessary data and information to make an assessment on where the company is against the organisation’s OSH policy and other requirements.

In the initial review, you will investigate the necessary laws, guidelines and requirements. And then, you would register where your organisation is against that criteria. You’ll go through the OSH reports and statistics throughout the previous term.

You would also want to ask around – what do the employees think? What are their suggestions?

In the workplace, you’ll identify, anticipate and assess current hazards and risks through inspections. As you do that, you will want to consider the necessary precautionary steps and controls – the ones in place as well as what could be introduced.

You realise now that this stage requires experts and, perhaps, specialists. After all, a trained and competent eye can spot the hazards, potentials and risks. A review is one-sided without the participation of the No. 1 stakeholders – the employees. Day-in and day-out, they face the hazards and risk. You’d be amazed by the feedback you get.

After all that is done, your findings should be recorded or documented. It will be the basis of the decision making later on. When you know what works and what doesn’t, it’ would be significantly easier to formulate goals for continual and sustainable improvement.

System Planning, Development and Implementation

If you haven’t gotten the picture yet, system means how things are done. As you take that in, you’ll realise how planning and implementation is needed. After all, how can things be done, even if you know how it is to be done, when nothing is being done?

So, when you plan, you need to know what needs to be done. Define the purpose and the target. Based on these two standards, you can already deduce your benchmark for your key performance indicators (KPI). Basically, how well have you done it.

Next, you need to set your priorities.

Then, have a clear performance criteria. Identify who does what, and when she does it.

Consistency is Key

All this talk of plans and implementations, you must bear in mind that all of it must be consistent. Consistent to what? With the OSH policy, standards, practices and regulations.

Where legal requirements are concerned, the plan must 100% comply with it. Remember that if you cut short any part, it is your shortcut to jail or fines and damaged reputation.

SMART Goals

SMART, as a benchmark, means:

S – Specific

M – Measurable

A – Achievable

R – Realistic

T – Timed

And your goals should have these criteria in place.

Why do something ambiguous? What’s the point if you cannot measure your achievements? Imagine the harm you get from unachievable goals! Let’s not go to unrealistic ones – OSH and world peace is highly impossible. When does your goal stop? Never?

Implementation

Now, after you’ve drawn out who to do, what to do, where to do, when to do how to do and why to do, make sure you do it. Hence implementation. ;-)

Personnel Organisation

The absence of order is chaos. Just as the absence of light is darkness. Which is why in the Occupational Safety and Health (OSH) Management System, you find the second element: organisation.

As you may have read in the previous entry, s.16, OSHA 1994, imposes a duty on the employer to have a written policy, organise the company to include OSH functions as well as having the necessary OSH procedures and methods.

There must be a system for OSH accountability and responsibility. Generally, all of it rests on the shoulders of the employer. However, for practical reasons, effectiveness and efficiency, these responsibilities and duties needs to be delegated.

For now, we focus on the duties of the employer. What must she do?

The employer needs to endorse the OSH policy;

The employer needs to set aside monetary, time and resource allocation for OSH;

The employer should incorporate OSH into the business plan and model;

The employer takes part in OSH committee meetings;

The employer must walkabout to see the compliance and administration of good OSH practices in their workplace.

By organising the company, the relevant personnel knows what their responsibilities are. The employer is then able to track who does what, where and when. In the event of an emergency, for instance, the relevant personnel would know immediately what to do to control the damage brought by the havoc.

According to Michael E. Gerber, author of The E-Myth Revisited, accountability simply means stand up and be counted. So you can say that OSH organisation identifies who’s to stand up and what they’re being counted on to do.

With proper organisation, the employer is then able to identify areas that needs improvement. This also includes the ability of the employer to discover the necessary training and competence workshop needed.

Procedure Organisation

To support the function of the Personnel Organisation, the employer needs to draw up and continuously revise a set of procedures, methods, techniques and system to guide the OSH personnel.

Unless it is quantified and orchestrated, it would be impossible for a company to carry out the policy satisfactorily and consistently. So, there should be a documentation system – recording what happened, who took action, and the outcome – to say the least.

Also, there is the need to identify communication methods. Communication methods can be divided into two categories: internal communication and external communication. Internal communication is the exchange of information within the company – employer-employee, inter-departments, employees to employers. External communication covers communication from the company to external parties.

… [I]t shall be the duty of every employer and every self-employed person to prepare and as often as may be appropriate revise a written statement of his general policy with respect to the safety and health at work of his employees and the organization and arrangements for the time being in force for carrying out that policy, and to bring the statement and any revision of it to the notice of all of his employees.

Based on this provision, there are several elements, or itineraries, which an employer must meet.

First, the employer must have a written OSH policy in the workplace.

Second, the employer must organise the workplace so this policy can be carried out. This includes determining responsibilities, duties and chain of command in a hierarchical method.

Third, the employer must have an arrangement to fulfill the policy. You may find plans, procedures and other methods necessary to carry out the policy.

Next, the employer must regularly update the OSH policy to accommodate the company’s business, industrial and technical activities.

Finally, s. 16, OSHA 1994 also compelsthe employer to inform the employees of the OSH policy and subsequent revisions.

At this stage, you should also consider Section 15(1), OSHA 1994:

It shall be the duty of every employer and every self-employed person to ensure, so far as is practicable, the safety, health and welfare at work of all his employees.

You can deduce that, the policy:

Is specific to that organisation, taking into account its industry, size and nature;

Is as clear and direct as possible, easy to understand;

Is endorsed by the most senior accountable person within the organisation;

Is accessible and made known;

Regularly reviewed and revised;

Made available to external interested party.

Certainly, the policy must adhere to certain criteria, among others:

Protects “the safety, health and welfare at work of all … employees”;

Compliance with the law, rules and regulation enforced or imposed;

Engage the participation of their employees during formulation and revision;

As a general framework, POPMA.POPEA may have other variance and modifications depending on the needs of the company, organisation or standard. But this is the, if not among the, basis for a systematic OSH Management System.

In order to help you further, MyDipOSH is expanding to YouTube. We understand that to make things more interesting, you need a variety of ways on the presentation of information. So, beginning with our index video on Proses Penggubalan Rang Undang-Undang, you can also follow future videos on OSH and soft skills-related topics through our YouTube Channel: http://www.youtube.com/user/mydiposh.

As we progress, the team behind MyDipOSH hopes to improve the quality of our services. So, if you have any comments, thoughts or suggestions, feel free to forward it to us today! We are more than happy to hear from you!